Niyo: Lions backup QB race offers little comfort

John Niyo The Detroit News Published 5:47 p.m. UTC Aug 18, 2018 Detroit — Jake Rudock lunged toward the goal line, stretched the football forward and finally got somewhere. The official raised his arms to signal a touchdown. And the loudspeakers at Ford Field soon blared the Lions’ fight song. But Rudock’s face was twisted in disgust as he left the field. And even as he stood on the sidelines congratulating some of his offensive linemen, the expression never really changed. Why? “We were losing,” he said, after the Lions’ preseason home opener against the New York Giants. Indeed, they lost, 30-17, in Matt Patricia’s Ford Field debut. And since the head coach couldn’t find a reason to smile on the sideline Friday night, the players wisely followed suit. Not that they felt any differently, following an ugly preaseason home opener that saw the Lions getting manhandled early and all too often for anyone’s liking, and trailing 24-3 midway through the fourth quarter. Asked afterward for an assessment of his team’s performance, Patricia was short on specifics but fairly blunt about the overall display. “I don’t think we played particularly well at all at any position,” he said. What’s worse, they played particularly poorly at several of them, most notably on the offensive line. The prioritized run game that showed some potential in Oakland quickly ground to a halt Friday, producing just 67 yards on 22 carries. And Matthew Stafford, who sat out last week’s preseason opener in Oakland, played only… [Read full story]